Alaska to begin non-stop Seattle to Hawaii flights

Introductory, one-way fares start at $109

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Alaska Airlines will start flying to Hawaii this year, offering daily year-round non-stop flights from Seattle to Honolulu and Lihue on the island of Kauai starting in October and seasonal service from Anchorage, Alaska, to Honolulu beginning in December.

Gregg Saretsky, the company's executive vice president of flight and marketing, said Hawaii is the biggest market the airline does not yet serve out of Seattle and Anchorage -- and one that many customers have been hounding it to add for years.

"We expect these flights to be full; that's for sure," Saretsky said before a company announcement slated for Thursday.

Alaska Airlines, the nation's ninth-largest carrier, has had its eye on Hawaii for about a decade, but hasn't had the right planes to fly there.

Its Boeing 737-700s have had the range to make the trip but were not stocked with the rafts, extra radio gear and other emergency equipment required for extended overwater flights.

The new 737-800s it started adding to its fleet last year fill that gap, Saretsky said.

Those planes, which seat 141 passengers in coach and 16 in first class, are big enough for the airline to make money serving Hawaii, yet small enough for it to fly into and out of the Lihue Airport without having to stop in Honolulu, which no other airline does out of Seattle, Saretsky said.

Northwest Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines each fly from Seattle to Kauai, but don't offer non-stop service because the larger aircraft they fly have passenger load restrictions serving the Lihue Airport, Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Caroline Boren said.

Alaska Airlines flights from Seattle to Honolulu will begin Oct. 12, and service from Seattle to Lihue will begin Oct. 28. The seasonal Anchorage-to-Honolulu service will run from Dec. 9 to April 13, and the airline will consider expanding that service in the future, Boren said.

Alaska Airlines is offering introductory one-way fares, with certain restrictions and blackout dates, for three days beginning Thursday: $109 from Seattle to Honolulu, $149 from Seattle to Lihue and $159 from Anchorage to Honolulu.

The company declined to say how much prices would rise after the sale ends Saturday.

The airline, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group Inc., wants to add the Big Island and Maui to its list of Hawaii destinations but has no timetable in mind.

"We want to continue to watch what the business conditions look like and whether the market can support additional capacity profitably," Saretsky said.

Many flights to Hawaii originate from San Francisco and Los Angeles, but Saretsky said Alaska Airlines isn't planning to add Hawaii service from those airports. "Our home base is Seattle, and so it would be more natural for us to expand Hawaii service by serving additional islands non-stop from Seattle," he said.

As the airline looks for ways to expand service to Hawaii, it's also eyeing other new markets, including Houston, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

Once it adds Honolulu and Lihue to its network, Alaska Airlines will fly to 60 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.